According to the WSJ, "the average fan appears to be willing to pay $10 for a digital copy. Now, that may not sound like a blow out. It's the going price for most records on Apple's iTunes. And that price, in turn, looks to be about right for a digitally downloaded album."

But dig a little deeper and an interesting economic model emerges. First, the CD retails for $16 of which $6.40 goes for manufacture, distribution, and selling in a store. When comparing it to iTunes, the digital album would cost about $10 but a hefty percentage goes to Apple for distribution.

So, whatever way you look at it, the brand-named band makes much more money selling direct to a loyal fan base than through other channels. Might this cause another round of price adjustments across the board?

Despite its toy-like appearance, the Slingbox is a serious piece of hardware. The idea is simple: hook up the little box to your TiVo or your cable set top box and connect it to your home internet. Then, when you're out and about, just pull up the client software on your laptop. SlingBox's software will detect the quality and throughput of your connection and shoot you a recompressed, digital stream of whatever you could be watching at home. It even works on cellphones.

As Slingbox expands its customer base, it could end up drawing some worried glances from big media players. Why? Because the device provides a simple way to deliver existing TV programming to PCs and wireless devices at a time when media giants such as Disney, Time Warner, and NBC are grappling with how to provide TV content to consumers online and GET PAID FOR IT.

CBS President-CEO Leslie Moonves said analysts and investors aren't giving his media empire the credit it deserves for modernizing. Speaking at the "Outlook 2010" seminar hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr. Moonves was asked why CBS isn't getting more credit from Wall Street for its many digital innovations of the past six months.

Here is part of his reply as reported in AdAge:

"There is a perception out there that we are 'old media,' that we are stuck in the old days … [but since we formed [the digital media division in] Jan. 3, we have probably done over 20 new-media deals. We did a Comcast deal. We've done a Google deal. We've done numerous deals with Verizon. We're doing video on demand on our own website. We did the NCAA basketball tournament."

What caught my attention this morning was that Mr. Moonves said CBS took in $4.2 million in new revenue from advertisers supporting its March Madness webcasts, and he expected that figure to double next year.

So, a let’s do a simple calculation: 21 days of March Madness averages to $200,000 per day in ad sales from one web site (albeit a very popular web site).

Next, let’s find a comparison. National Cable Communications is the rep firm for the cable MSO’s. While they do not sell all the ads for local cable television, they do (presumably) target the same type of advertisers that CBS covets: nationally focused and large. NCC probably sells $3 Million in ads per day; that is $1 Billion in national ad sales for spot cable last year. Let’s keep in mind that this business represents national ad sales inventory for the entire country across Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Cablevision, Charter, etc.

The two metrics are not an apples-to-apples comparison and people could pick it apart. But I find it interesting that one very popular web site can generate 1/15’th the daily gross revenue from national advertisers as all of local cable can.

Some of the data in this email may be so television ad industry specific that it is clear to me but not clear in type. Please contact me if it is confusing.

Brightcove acquires Metastories


 
 
Founded in 2000, MetaStories is a provider of rich-media publishing solutions, used by a wide variety of top-tier media companies including Yahoo!, MSN, USATODAY.com, Discovery Networks, National Geographic, and Scripps Networks. Brightcove plans to continue to develop, market and distribute MetaStories StoryMaker. The product will be available as a stand alone solution and offered as an integrated component of the Brightcove service.

		February 20, 2006 The New York Times Company Selects Brightcove to Help Build its Broadband Video Offerings
		The New York Times Company plans to use Brightcove to program and deliver broadband video content throughout its online properties. Brightcove will make it possible to syndicate video produced for About.com and other Times Company broadband channels to Web affiliates, thus extending the reach of The New York Times Company brands and driving additional traffic to their content.

		December 20, 2005 Reuters hires Brightcove for Distribution
		Reuters is testing a streaming video service called Reuters Affiliate Network, Site operators will get access to tools for embedding the Reuters video player, which is Windows and Mac compatible. The player is integrated into a Web page, and doesn't use pop-ups or need software installs. Advertising, however, may be shown. The new program stems from a partnership between Reuters and Internet TV service provider Brightcove.

		November 22, 2005
		Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia, Joins Brightcove Board of Directors

		November 22, 2005
		AOL, IAC/InteractiveCorp, The Hearst Corporation and Allen & Company invest $16.2
		AOL, IAC/InteractiveCorp, The Hearst Corporation and Allen & Company invests $16.2 million in a second round of funding. Publishers using Brightcove will have the option to syndicate their video content directly to AOL.com, with the potential to generate revenue from advertising and sales of their programming. A co-branded version of the Brightcove service will be marketed as the self-service platform for publishing video on AOL.com.

		January, 2005 Closes Series A Round of Financing
		Raises $5.5M from Cambridge-based General Catalyst Partners LLC and Accel Partners of California.

Read the entire report by Ipsos Insight >>

First, small postings that are either news oriented or my idle kibitzing about that news will be hosted on a different site called DigitalTV Weblog. I encourage you to visit and bookmark that site as part of your daily reading.

Second, I will repurpose the ReinventTV web site as a location to post some of my business plan research information for convenient retrieval. For example, company information, small bite-sized factoids, org charts, bios, etc.

My intent is to segregate the two very different types of postings so that one web address does not look like an incoherent jumble. If you have suggestions that help make this better, please don't hesitate to let me know.

"A valid broadband ad impression may only be counted when an ad counter (logging server) receives and responds to an HTTP request for a tracking asset from a client," the new guideline states. That means measurement should not occur when the buffer is initiated; rather, "measurement should occur when the ad itself begins to appear on the user's browser, closest to the opportunity to see."

I will just state the obvious: guidelines help make a market function, and this definition is a reasonable approach that balances the publisher'ss and advertiser's conflicting needs.

Read the IAB press release >>

Talk about reaching a captive audience. NBC Universal has signed a deal with the VST Media Network that will allow it to run three-minute clips -- the average time it takes to fuel one's vehicle--at service-station pumps.

Pumpers will see local news, weather, sports, and entertainment--both video and headlines--plus local advertising. State Farm Insurance and Tropicana are among the initial advertisers. A pilot program has already begun in Southern California.

According to Broadcasting & Cable, each service station that is participating in the program has about 20,000 visitors per month. Shell is the first company to sign on to the program, but other gas retailers are expected to join in soon, according to NBC.

But what is happening now? The spike in the number of TV shows available online has put network affiliates on notice. "Let's face it: The Internet eliminates middlemen ... and your local broadcaster is the middleman."

Americans may be surprised to learn that they actually rank fairly low on the list of countries who have adapted to hi-speed broadband. At least, that is the according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The U.S. ranked 12th among industrialized nations, with 16.8 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, as of December, the OECD said.

The obvious take away is that telecom oriented companies have continued room to grow. A consequence of that is that even more Americans will have the faster pipes into the household to view Internet-based television. Something to think about.

Discovery Communications executives revealed two new initiatives they hope will make the Discovery networks truly multi-platform: Discovery Mobile, which will show special programs designed specifically for mobile viewing, and two new broadband channels featuring documentaries submitted by viewers, Discovery Channel Beyond and Travel Channel Beyond.

Discovery Mobile will not be a feed of Discovery's linear TV channels, but will instead feature 30- to-240-second clips. The mobile TV channel, due to launch some time in the third quarter of 2006, will target the 15-39 age demo, and is actually the eighth mobile channel launched by Discovery internationally.

Among the chief attractions of the new broadband channels is a content area called "MyDocs," which will allow Discovery Channel viewers to create their own documentaries and upload them for mass viewing.

Finally, Campbell and Abruzzese also announced a partnership with Google Earth, which will display clickable icons--the Discovery Channel's "D"--over various points of interest on the globe.

The New York Times reported today that the WB is shying away from broadcasting scenes that could potentially offend the federal watchdogs. But, rather than leave the footage on the cutting room floor, the WB will make the entire, unexpurgated version of the show available online.

On the other hand, providing complete "director's-cut" shows online can only be a boon for the Web, ultimately driving more and more consumers online, showing them that content unavailable anywhere else can be found on the Internet.

Nielsen's No. 1 priority for the next couple of years isn't commercial ratings, TV time, or place-shifting, or even advancing its traditional in-home measurement of conventional TV. It's understanding the link between television and the Internet, and the company plans to introduce a new method for measuring television programming viewed over the Internet by the end of this year, Susan Whiting, CEO of the TV ratings giant, told a roomful of the nation's biggest advertisers Wednesday during a presentation in New York.

Read more of Joe Mandese's story >>

Television is an increasingly wobbly target for ad spending and will likely soon begin hemorrhaging dollars to interactive and other channels. That's according to a Forrester poll of 133 advertisers who control more than $20 billion in advertising. Among those surveyed were Charles Schwab, Colgate, Dunkin' Donuts, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel, Pfizer, and Verizon.

The study, undertaken in conjunction with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and presented at the TV Ad Forum in New York, found 78% of these marketers feel the potency of their television advertising has declined in the last two years.

Seventy percent believe digital video recorders (DVR) and video-on-demand (VOD) will "reduce or destroy" the effectiveness of :30 spots. And once DVR penetration grows to above 30 million households, 24 percent intend to cut their TV ad budgets by at least a quarter and reallocate that money to online advertising, product placement and other channels. Smaller percentages said they'd pursue program sponsorships, product placement and online video ads (45%).